The church

After having passed the door of the zodiac, we arrive in the last staircases leading to the porch of the church. The buttresses are from XIXth century, but there remain some original steps which turned behind the apses when the staircase of dead did not exist.

The gate

It was built by the architects of Hugues de Montboissier at the beginning of XIIth century. Realized out of green and gray stone, made up of several arcs, edges and cords, it is supported by a series of semi-columns characterized by floral capitals.

In top, the archivolt forming the drip is finished by a  head of monk. Other side existed the head of a young monk to the hair cut in crown. Janus?

The posts, on both sides of the gate, surmounted trefoil Gothic arches, are a posterior addition. they are the remainders of a gantry which protected the gate. The two leaves were carried out in 1826. In top on the left, one distinguishes the Roman stele of Ist century which carries the dedication to the alpine divinity.















Interior of the church

Large and solemn, in spite of its modest dimensions, (22 meters since the entry of the old chorus to the apse), the abbey  counts three naves of reduced size separated by pillars, whose vaults intersecting ribs express a perfect fusion between Roman and Gothic art. More than half of surface of the church rests on a single, large, very high stone pillar which is in the center of the lower base, in the staircase of deaths.

The church of Hugues de Montboissier occupied in length a little more half of the principal nave, and arrived with its apses to the two round pillars.

One of the pillars is posed directly on the rock, and it releases an incredible energy from it. Fortunately that one finds beautiful dischargers on the capitals. One counts 139 pillars in all the church. The symbolic system is rich.

The large bay of the apse shows a carved decoration of the school of Pleasure and comprises 6 statues, placed the ones with the top of the others, in the framing. The prophets are present, Isaïe, Jérémie, Daniel and Ezéchiel. They are due to the hand a shelf on which are engraved the promises of the old will.
In the top of the pilasters, it is possible to admire the four corresponding evangelists and their symbols (from right to left: Mathieu, Marc, Luc, Jean).

The lower part is occupied by the scene of the Annunciation, with Gabriel archangel and Marie: it is, in this case, the face and the capacity of Marie which deserve a detailed attention and which cause a deep admiration for spirituality and mystical softness that they express. It is the only one who isn't degraded by time.

Marie, parèdre of Michel, is present in all the church, and especially on the fresco of Secondo del Bosco da Poirino. She occupies all the wall at the bottom of the collateral South. One finds here the fresco of the legend, studied higher.

In the apse of right-hand side, an old furnace bridge which one says that it would be built by the juxtaposition of a pagan furnace bridge and a Christian table resting on 4 colonettes. A tradition allots it to Saint Jean Vincent.

The gate of the monks

To the bottom of collateral North, it led formerly to the claustral buildings. Today, it gives access to a terrace from where the valley and the ruins of the monastery are dominated. It is divided by a pilaster, decorated at the origin of two posts of angle. The tympanum comprises two trefoil arcades. Two other pilasters constitute splayings of this gate, which presents similarities with the gate of entry in the church.

The archivolt ends with a head of a man. Some can said to you that he is a buffoon or a devil. But what does he want to say to us?

The primitive sanctuary

Located under the pavement of the basilica, one reaches it since the central nave. It is composed of three juxtaposed vaults which make it possible to follow the progressive evolution of the oratory of the Roman castrum become sanctuary of the archangel.

The last vault, in North, smallest, on the ground of solid rock, makes think of a construction of the 5th century. The vault of the medium, fuller and worked out, would be the addition carried out by the first monks. Vastest with a beautiful apse and walls of rock, is allotted to Saint Jean Vincent. It is it which would have been devoted by the angels, and remains the worthiest place of Sacra.

The eremitic cell

It is a small part discovered in 1987 in the top of the floor of the corridor which traverses the stage under “the old chorus”.
It is a narrow space of 2 meters approximately of dimensions. At the time of its discovery, it was encumbered. Once released, one found two invaluable silver moneys struck by the bishops of Le Puy (Xth century) and by the vicomptes of Limoges (end of Xth century, XIth beginning). This discovery made it possible, partly, to date found space and also to indicate the use as probable boxroom of it, before it was forgotten. There are other assumptions on the use of this épace: that it could be the cell of the hermit Jean Vincent or a eremitic cell used by the monks to withdraw themselves and request in loneliness, with calms, but close to the community.
Its solid material position and its construction as bring to think as the small part was to belong to the first abbey church before being reduced to a warehouse.